Seja a astrologia, ou a religião, ou o que quer que seja, quero viver num mundo onde as pessoas pensem por si mesmas, ceticamente, pedindo provas. Não que a astrologia seja prejudicial, e provavelmente não seja, mas se quiser viver pensando que esta tudo bem, acreditar numa coisa somente porque acredita, sem provas. Você está perdendo tanto... É uma experiência tão maravilhosa viver num mundo e compreender porque vive nele, e o que o faz funcionar, compreender as verdadeiras estrelas, a astronomia que é algo empobrecedor reduzir-lo a insignificância da astrologia. E penso que podemos dizer o mesmo da religião. O universo é um lugar grandioso, bonito, maravilhoso e seria mesquinho paroquial e degradante acreditar em demônios e em criadores sobrenaturais.
For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick. Jonathan Swift | 1729 It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in stroling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes. I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present dep...
